High-performance liquid chromatography and UV-visible measurements to optimize the storage of volume holograms in hydrogels

Abstract

The storage of time-stable holographic gratings in photohydrogels when the material is immersed in liquid media represents a great challenge at present. A very important stage in the process of storing holograms in photohydrogels are the washing stages to eliminate the remains of the components that have not reacted in the photochemical reaction. The main goal of this work is focusing on the study of the optimization of the washing stages of the photohydrogels based on acrylamide and N,N’-methylenebis(acrylamide) once unslanted transmission holograms have been stored. For the purpose of determining the compositions of the wash solutions, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and UV-visible measurements have been employed in our system. PBST and DMSO:H2O 6:4 (v/v) are used as solvents in the washing stages. The diffraction efficiencies are measured during the washing stages and after the storing of the holograms during several days in PBST. Maximum diffraction efficiencies of 38.0 and 27.6% are reached when PBST and DMSO:H2O 6:4 are employed, respectively.